It didn’t take long to see evidence that Kids Unplugged had gotten into the brain of my seven-year-old son.
The new RNZ web series promotes life outside – mountain biking, sailing, wild kai foraging, etc – away from devices. It’s hosted by the Steel brothers – Malachi (15), Judah (12) and Ezra (7), from the Bay of Plenty.
“Mum, are a lot of kids addicted to screens?” my son asked over dinner a few days after watching the six-part series with me.
Yeah buddy, some kids spend hours on screens each day (Data from 2018, found that New Zealand teenagers spent a daily average of about six hours on a screen, a figure that likely increased during and after Covid).
“Am I addicted to screens?”
Snort. No, buddy, but that’s because you’re seven and I constantly stare down your incessant whining about wanting a phone or video games or more TV.
“Do you think the Kids Unplugged kids are secretly addicted to screens?”
And that’s where I took the chance to make myself look really cool. I told him I had just interviewed the two older brothers, Malachi and Judah Steel, about why they made the show, so no I don’t think they are secretly addicted to screens.
Screens, devices and social media are intense battlegrounds in modern parenting. More and more research is pointing to the impact of screens, and by association social media, on young brains, contributing to a host of challenges such as anxiety and depression. Tech giants recently lost a US civil court case brought by a 20-year-old who claimed social media use left her with mental health and self-esteem issues.
It’s one thing for a parent to drone on about screen time and addiction and all that. It’s another thing to have some cool kids reinforce that message, handing parents a mic drop moment whenever their child wheels out the “but every other kid has a phone” defense. The Steel brothers either don’t have a phone, or have one and use it sparingly, and don’t use social media.
The Steel brothers prepare for a interview with Te Tai, who teaches them about foraging for food and trapping animal pests.
Kylie DellaBarca Steel
In each episode of the show, the boys learn from the life of an outdoorsy New Zealand teen, such as Jack Karetai-Barrett, who cycled almost 1000 kilometres from Whakatāne to Parliament, raising awareness for Māori wards. In other episodes, they meet up with young people who find joy riding horses, living off grid or foraging for food and trapping animal pests in New Zealand’s bush.
There are lots of conversations between the Steel brothers and their teenage guests about phone and social media use. Karetai-Barrett spoke of the hours he spent on his phone and how that contributed to a struggle with obesity before he mostly ditched phone use and turned to mountain biking.
Malachi Steel and Jack Karetai-Barrett, who was riding from Whakatāne to Parliament.
Anton Steel
Each episode has a segment on the positive impact the outdoors and real life have on the brain and body, as well as easy challenges for kids, like preparing a meal with your family. (The Steels do live on a rural lifestyle block, so getting outdoors is arguably easier for them than, say, a kid in inner-city Wellington).
One of the inspirations for Kids Unplugged came from Malachi’s decision to step back from playing the video game Minecraft.
“…I didn’t really do anything with that time, and so I was like ‘This isn’t really doing anything for me. I don’t need to have any screen time a week,’ and just dropped it from there.
“And then now that I’ve got older, I haven’t got social media, and I’m 15, so that’s pretty uncommon.”
Iris Fahey and Judah Steel part way through an overnight hike that was featured on Kids Unplugged.
Kylie Della Barca Steel
Young people policing their own phone and social media use is something I have reported on before. It’s also something that showed up in research by Dr Rachel Billington from the University of Otago, who studies social media and young people. In a recent interview for a story about where young people get their news, she told me some are setting up their own rules for social media and device use.
“A lot of them are seeing [that] social media isn’t what it was cracked up to be ten, 20 years ago, particularly as we get more AI content online and it becomes more populated with bots, rather than your friends.”
However, Malachi and Judah say it remains challenging to be some of the few young people they know who are not on social media, including Judah, at a recent sleepover with some of his friends.
“Instead of hanging out and talking, they’re just scrolling on their phone. And you’re like, and I just get so bored of screens…”
The Steel family is Kylie and Anton with their children (left to right) Ezra, Judah and Malachi.
Ben Rice
Of course, there is a degree of parental involvement in both the show’s development and the Steel brothers’ take on devices and social media. Their dad Anton, is a filmmaker and their mum, Kylie, produced the series.
Kylie came up with the idea for the show after a cancer diagnosis left her wanting to do a meaningful project as a family. She also saw the predicament of parents like her who had already let her kids into the digital world through devices before mounting research demonstrated the negative side effects.
“We had lived Kids Unplugged for the last 12, 13 years, you know, we lived a life of balance, I think. I’m not saying screen-free, but just some decent balance, checks and balances within that. And it was like, ‘Okay, we’ve lived it. How can we be a light to other families?”
But be careful what you wish for. A few days after my son’s dinner table questions, we were in the backyard, and I was on my phone (a key frustration from young people is how often they see their parents on their phones).
“Hey mum, aren’t you meant to be Kids Unplugged? Get off your phone and come jump on the trampoline,” says my son.
I mumbled some defence about “needing” to send a text, put my phone down and hit the trampoline.
Perhaps there’s a sequel the Steels can work on: Parents Unplugged.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand